James Bailey, the tax partner at Cornish accountants Robinson Reed Layton, expressed his concern about the announcement that the UK and Germany have agreed a compromise on the tax relief associated with the "Patent Box". Please find below a press release regarding this.

Please also find attached an image of James Bailey, Partner at Robinson Reed Layton. High res or alternative images are available on request.

For any further information, please do not hesitate to get in touch,

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Rebecca

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PRESS RELEASE

TO: News Desk

FROM: Robinson Reed Layton

DATE: 14^thNovember 2014

FOR IMMEDIATE USE

Shutting the Patent Box

James Bailey, the tax partner at Cornish accountantsRobinson Reed Layton, expressed his concern about the announcement that the UK and Germany have agreed a compromise on the tax relief associated with the "Patent Box".

"The Patent Box, together with the tax relief for research and development costs, provide valuable incentives to high tech businesses, which are an increasingly important part of the Cornish economy", explained James.

"The Patent Box regime allows a company making profits out of patents that belong to them to reduce the tax on those profits from 20% to as low as 10%".

"Apparently, Germany had expressed concern that the present Patent Box regime was likely to encourage multi-nationals to move profits from patents to the UK in order to benefit from the lower rate of tax. It appears that George Osborne has given in to the pressure and he and Germany have issued a joint "proposal" for reform of the tax regime.

The "proposal" is written in almost impenetrable euro speak but essentially the Patent Box as it exists today will be closed to new entrants from June 2016, and the relief will be entirely abolished by June 2021.

It appears that the Patent Box will be replaced by a new intellectual property tax relief, and if the "proposal" can be relied upon this is good news for Cornish high tech companies. It seems that the new regime will require that any tax relief on income arising from patents is to be restricted to patents resulting from research and development carried out in the UK by the company seeking the relief.

"If this is the case, then this is good news for local high tech companies as the ones I am aware of would already qualify under such conditions".

The problem of course is that whenever there is a change in tax legislation of a fundamental nature such as this, there is always the risk that perfectly deserving cases will fail to qualify on some technicality. We can only watch this space and hope that the new legislation is drafted more competently than is usually the case.

For further information or advice on this matter, please contact James Bailey on 01872 276116 or visit http://www.rrlcornwall.co.uk/.

ENDS---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

EDITOR'S NOTES:

CONTACT: Please contact Rebecca Waterfield at Eventy - Marketing & PR on 01326 376273 orrebecca@eventy.co.uk

PHOTO: Please see attached image of James Bailey, Partner at Robinson Reed Layton. High res image available on request.

FURTHER INFO: Robinson Reed Layton is an independent firm of accountants and registered auditors with origins dating back to the early 1920s. With offices in Truro, the business heart of Cornwall, their client base includes corporate clients, unincorporated businesses, non-profit organisations and private clients, giving them a deep-rooted understanding of and involvement in the business community.